The incarceration of Nnamdi Kanu and the Igbo blame game

By Tochukwu Ezukanma

As our persecution complex and its attendant blame game continue to distort our perception of every political issue in Nigeria, many Igbo believe that the incarceration of Nnamdi Kanu is a confirmation of the implacable hatred for the Igbo by the Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba. They want us to believe that his sentence to life imprisonment by a Yoruba High Court judge, Kolawale Omotosho, is a betrayal of the Igbo by yet another Yoruba. In some write-ups, some Igbo have likened it to an earlier betrayal of Ojukwu and the Igbo by a Yoruba: Obafemi Awolowo.  

Actually, no one betrayed Ojukwu and the Igbo. Ojukwu’s Biafranism was one of the most reckless political moves in human history. It was blindingly clear, even to the most casual observer, that Biafra had no chance of ever winning that war sparked off by Ojukwu’s declaration of Biafra. Biafranism was a suicidal enterprise that snuffed out the lives of hundreds of thousands Biafrans in the glory of youth and starved about one million to death. It ravaged the Igbo psychologically and set us, at least, one hundred years backwards, politically. To exonerate himself from blames for that monumental blunder and its dreadful and destructive consequences, especially for the Igbo, Ojukwu needed scapegoats. He found them in alleged betrayers and saboteurs: Obafemi Awolowo; Saro Wiwo and the treacherous Biafran ethnic minorities; Ifeajuna and the saboteurs; etc. 

Awolowo did not betray Ojukwu. Ojukwu did not release him from prison, and thus, had no agreement or understanding with him. It was Yakubu Gowon that released Awolowo from jail. Gowon came to power on August 1, 1966. The next day, August 2, 1966, he released political prisoners, including Awolowo, Tony Enahoro, Joseph Tarka and Lateef Janake. 

Saro Wiwo and the ethnic minorities of Eastern Region/Biafra were not saboteurs; they did not betray the Igbo. How can you betray a cause you had, from the outset, refused to be part of? Due to their fear of domination by a dominant ethnic group, ethnic minorities across Nigeria are ardent proponents of one Nigeria. In their fear of Hausa/Fulani domination, the minorities in northern Nigeria are fervent aficionados of one Nigeria. The one time Nigerian Defense Minister, Domkat Bali, once succinctly expressed this fear of Hausa/Fulani domination and his commitment to Nigerian unity. “I am from a small tribe, the Tarok tribe in Langtang. If the North secures its independence from Nigeria, the Hausa/Fulani will be so dominant that they will lord it over us whether we like it or not. A bigger Nigeria will check such excesses. So, the bigger Nigeria is, the freer my tribe and I will be.” 

In their fear of Yoruba domination, the minorities of Western Region, Igbo, Edo, Ishan, Urhobo, etc., agitated for, and got, their own region, the Midwestern Region. In their fear of Igbo domination, those in Eastern Region, Efik, Ogoja, Ijaw, etc, for long, demanded their own region/state from Eastern Region. In his book, Sunset in Biafra, Elechi Amadi wrote about being a member of the Rivers people delegation that met with Ojukwu in Enugu on September 2, 1966. In the meeting, they made it clear that, “The only lasting solution would be the creation of a Rivers State”. In order words, they stated their desire to remain in Nigeria and have a state of their own, Rivers State. Unequivocally, they stated their refusal to be part of Biafra. Ojukwu ignored their stance and forced them into his Biafra. 

As the war raged, the absurdity and futility of Biafra became even more glaring. Thus, scapegoats were needed to bear the blame for Ojukwu’s reckless choices, blunders and failures in leadership. As the generality of them had made it clear that they did not want to be part of Biafra, the minorities became ready targets for alleged saboteurs. The Biafran authorities encouraged or, at least, acquiesced to their mass-murder by Igbo soldiers and villagers for alleged perfidy and sabotage. This inspired deep anti-Igbo sentiments amongst them. Not surprisingly, at the end of the war, they seized Igbo property in Port Harcourt and refused the return of the Igbo to the city. 

Amazingly, there was no saboteur in Biafra; it was merely a propaganda spoof that, in addition to the minorities, targeted educated and independent-minded Igbo that disagreed with Ojukwu policies and methods, like Emmanuel Ifeajuna. In their individual books, the Chief of Staff of the Biafran Army, Alexander Madiebo; the 2nd in command in the Banjo-led Midwest Expeditionary Force, Wale Ademoyega; the Chief of Biafran Military Intelligence, Bernard Odogwu; and Ojukuw’s chief apologist and master propagandist, Frederick Forsyth, attested that there was no saboteur in Biafra; and that Emmanuel Ifeajuna was not a saboteur. 

The imprisonment of Nnamddi Kanu is not a betrayal of the Igbo by the Yoruba. It does not evince Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba hatred for Ndigbo. Nnamdi Kanu is a trouble maker that was to inevitably get into trouble. He is a delusional messiah and pseudo-freedom fighter. In his confused and twisted form of freedom fighting, he directs his guns and terror not against the enemy, but against his own people. Thus, he brought death, dread and disorder to the once placid Igbo land. The perplexing question is how can the terrorizing of Ndigbo and the devastation of Alaigbo by Kanu private armies and their criminal shoot-offs translate to the realization of Biafra?

Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos Nigeria.

tezukanma@gmail.com

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